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Television: Liam Fay: Growth industry

As the international definition of “celebrity” expands to encompass anyone who has ever posed for a newspaper photograph, RTE seems to be contracting the term to include only those who appear regularly on television, preferably RTE.

This incestuous trend is most blatantly obvious on the national station’s flagship chat shows. Both The Late Late Show and its fun-house mirror image Tubridy Tonight rely for much of their guest lists on habitués of the Montrose canteen: Fair City cast members, yoof presenters, telly totty, newsreaders, sports commentators, Charlie Bird and so on.

These glittering local stars can occasionally be eclipsed, but usually only by fellow professionals from larger foreign channels. On those rare nights when Pat Kenny or Ryan Tubridy promise viewers “a really big name”, the chances are that their bookers have bagged a British broadcaster or, if they’ve been really lucky, a British broadcaster of Irish extraction.